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Anon tries to understand Stephen King's IT (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 1 year ago by Early_To_Risa@sh.itjust.works to c/greentext@sh.itjust.works
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[-] Gullible@sh.itjust.works 136 points 1 year ago

Stephen King was terrifyingly high for astoundingly long stretches of time. He can’t even remember writing some of his books. IT is the manifestation of fear, and a metaphor for King’s own experiences; he conquered fear through understanding, companionship, and anxiety-obliterating levels of cocaine and xanax.

[-] Steeve@lemmy.ca 32 points 1 year ago

Just goes to show that you can become incredibly rich and successful by locking yourself in a drug prison for a decade or two.

[-] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 18 points 1 year ago

In the same way you can do so by locking yourself in a casino for a week

[-] daed@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

I'd argue you can hedge your bets with thorough research and a good understanding of your chosen substances and own body chemistry though

[-] Kraivo@lemmy.world 20 points 1 year ago

And probably orgies with underages

[-] misterwu@lemmy.world 68 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I just finished it. What really irritated me was why the heck did he write the part where seven 11-year olds had an orgy in order to find the way back from the sewers. What. The. Fuck. Stephen. WTF.

And IT was definitely female. The discovered it was pregnant when they fought it as Kids. By the time they came back to finish the job 27y later, IT already laid some juicy spider eggs.

[-] Pringles@lemm.ee 28 points 1 year ago

Tbh the orgy ruined the book for me. I just don't see the point of it. I understand what he did narratively, but it is so completely out of the left field and unnecessary that it just shatters the enjoyment. And I know what SK would say: it's about the journey, not the destination. But that is such a load of horse crap! Imagine LOTR until the battle of the black gate and they decide to defeat Sauron by having a hobbit bukkake. Wouldn't have the same place in history, I imagine.

[-] andy_wijaya_med@lemmy.world 15 points 1 year ago

Hobbit bukka... Why man why

[-] rob64@startrek.website 10 points 1 year ago

"Hobbit Bukkake" new band name I call it!

[-] 15liam20@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

And then a second bukkake.

[-] Aermis@lemmy.world 26 points 1 year ago

It was a train. But yeah I love his books and I've tried everything under the sun to justify this but just couldn't wrap my head around it being a "having to lose the innocence and transition to being an adult by everyone losing their virginity and somehow connect via love?"

[-] TheMongoose@kbin.social 21 points 1 year ago

What really irritated me was why the heck did he write the part

For Stephen King, the answer is always 'drugs. Lots of drugs'

[-] prole@sh.itjust.works 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I haven't read IT specifically, but I've read a lot of SK, and lot of stories in his shared universe(s) (not sure how many people have connected IT to Dark Tower, but wouldn't surprise me), but knowing him I'd imagine IT isn't male or female. It just is. Or, at the very least, it's not something that really falls into human concepts of gender.

[-] Rudebrew@reddthat.com 66 points 1 year ago

If you can’t handle me at my child sewer orgy, you don’t deserve me at my interdimensional time spider fight.

[-] prole@sh.itjust.works 28 points 1 year ago

This is one of the reasons I just love Stephen King's mind. Dude is fucking insane. We're lucky to have him.

[-] agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works 16 points 1 year ago

It was my understanding that Stephen King is just cocaine's most prolific nom de plume

[-] prole@sh.itjust.works 10 points 1 year ago

Only for one period of his life, and the stuff he's written after he got clean is some of the best stuff he's ever written...

King may have been on tons of coke (and drinking bottles of Scope mouth wash) while writing some books, it was in spite of it, not because. Those books don't necessarily reflect the characteristics of cocaine.

It's not like what speed is to On The Road, as that book actually reads like someone tweaking out.

[-] Varyk@sh.itjust.works 25 points 1 year ago

Secretly am female?

When is that disclosed?

[-] starman2112@sh.itjust.works 57 points 1 year ago

A brief internet search tells me that IT's real form (or at least the closest thing to a real form the human mind can comprehend in our plane of existence) is a giant pregnant female spider. Apparently one of the characters in the book says "oh dear Jesus, IT is female," though the web page I was reading doesn't give a page number.

[-] Varyk@sh.itjust.works 24 points 1 year ago

Okay radical. I think maybe the fact that it was a spider is why the female level didn't immediately click with me haha

Thanks

[-] LopensLeftArm@sh.itjust.works 18 points 1 year ago

It's definitely referenced in The Dark Tower iirc

[-] Varyk@sh.itjust.works 12 points 1 year ago

The It monster is in the dark Tower? Which book? I think I only read the first three.

And honestly I can barely remember them even though I read the first three twice. They're so crazy.

[-] Squibbles@lemmy.ca 21 points 1 year ago

When he finally came back to finish that series he really took it off, way off, the rails. I envy you for only having read the first 3.

[-] Varyk@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 year ago

Oh yeah? Which one did they first visit a metropolitan city?

Was the gunslinger in a pharmacy?

Idk I think I lost interest at that point.

Ahhh look at these strange metal boxes with people inside! - geeeet outta here.

[-] Albbi@lemmy.ca 13 points 1 year ago

2nd book has the gunslinger (in Eddie's body) in New York, and yes he had a shootout with the police in a pharmacy. He needed meds for his infected hand.

I don't remember strange metal boxes with people inside...

4th book is really good. At least teenage me liked it at the time. It's a prequel book about a time in the gunslinger past when he had just become newly knighted, and a love interest.

After that things get weird. I should try another read through.

[-] Varyk@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 year ago

Huh, okay, I would be interested in a prequel, maybe. Thanks

[-] Albbi@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 year ago

It can be pretty much read as an independent book too, so don't feel like you need to read the other books first. There's just a bit of tie in from the other books at the beginning and the end.

[-] Varyk@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 year ago

Oh that actually interests me a lot, thank you. I just started Babel by rf kuang, But I think I will try the fourth book, I'd like to see the gunslinger again. Yeah I was worried. I thought I'd have to go through the whole series again, but a relative stand alone entry sounds doable

[-] prole@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 year ago

Yeah, but Book 4 is the best. Wizard and Glass is the pinnacle of the series.

Been years (prob over a decade) since I've read any of them, but I remembered hating Wizard and Glass at first, because it was a prequel and I wanted to hear more about the current journey, but fell in love with it by the end. So fucking good.

[-] MutilationWave@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Goddamn right. I wish the whole thing was set in that time.

[-] Pringles@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago

Yes, I wouldn't bother reading 5-7. The terrifying thing is that he wrote that stuff sober. Cocaine King would've done a better job of it, I think.

[-] LopensLeftArm@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 year ago

It's been forever since I read them last, I want to say Wolves of the Calla?

[-] Varyk@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 year ago

What do you read these days?

Just out of curiosity.

And do you still read any king?

[-] LopensLeftArm@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 year ago

I'm mainlining Brandon Sanderson these days. I haven't read too much of King's stuff, although the extended version of The Stand is still in my top favorites and gets a reread regularly

[-] Varyk@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 year ago

Oh I never read the extended version.

I only read the first expanse book. Liked it, thought the ending was great

Thanks for your answers, have a good one

[-] LopensLeftArm@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 year ago

Thanks, you too! I actually haven't read the Expanse or any of James S. A. Corey's stuff, but I really dug the show and it's on my list to check out!

[-] tjhart85@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

Fun fact: James S.A. Corey isn't a person and is the pen name that Ty Franck and David Abraham use when they're writing together.

The Expanse show was fantastic and the books are somehow better (there's also like 40 more years worth of story [although the books did a multi decade time jump between books to get there])!

[-] Smallwater@lemmy.world 19 points 1 year ago

What he meant by that was "holy shitballs I gotta stop drinking"

Dude had serious issues. Try reading his Dark Tower series - you can pinpoint at which book he got sober, because the story starts to make sense.

[-] MaxHardwood@lemmy.ca 14 points 1 year ago

I could be wrong but I don't think you drink cocaine..

[-] Smallwater@lemmy.world 14 points 1 year ago

Not with that attitude

[-] Peaty@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 year ago

He had issues with both as I recall

[-] Starkstruck@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Ok so I've never read IT but the monster killed ALL dinosaurs? Like damn that must've taken forever.

Edit: wait was it crash landing basically the asteroid cause that makes more sense.

this post was submitted on 14 Oct 2023
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